AECP FOR THE GUYS

I just completed the Altenew Certified Educator Program (AECP) course I was most nervous about, the course titled “For the Guys.” I think all card crafters know firsthand how challenging it is to create a great card for a man, especially when so many available supplies are clearly feminine, and men tend to be less sentimental. This course went over several theme suggestions for making a great “Guy” card, and the technique I have chosen for my course project actually came from Lesson 1, “Geometrics.”

I went looking through my Altenew stash for ideas and I ran across my Fancy Star Builder Simple Coloring Mask Stencil and knew this would be a great place to start. I also went through my inks looking for a color palette where I had both a coordinating set of colors and the colors were decidedly masculine. I settled on the Frosted Foliage Fresh Dye Ink Set which features four beautiful shades of green because my husband’s favorite color is green and he is the man I know best!

When coming up with this design… it was really a trial and error process. I grabbed several pieces of scrap paper and stenciled different images and patterns until I got a rough idea of what I was looking to do. Once I had decided on a design (my 4th attempt) I grabbed my inks and an 80lb Neenah Solar White cardstock panel measuring 4.25″ x 5.5″ and got to work.

Following the advice from the course, I started my design by drawing a vertical center line and center point on my cardstock using a pencil and ruler. This allowed me to line up my first row of images to ensure a symmetrical pattern. Once I knew center, I lined up my stencil starting with the largest 8-point star pattern. I taped down my stencil and before laying down ink, I erased the pencil line in the center so it wouldn’t be trapped by the ink and harder to erase later. Next, I started my star in the lighter Jade ink color, before moving on to the next stars directly above and below along my center line.

Once I finished my first line of stars, it was easy to the use the edges of each star to line up the adjacent rows. Instead of going point to point with my stars, for the adjacent rows, I offset my line-up to create more visual interest. Once the first layer of large stars was complete, I then went in with the medium-sized 8-point star in the interior of my larger star images, this time using the Eucalyptus color. Finally, I grabbed the Forest Fern color to use with my smallest 8-point star, again, nesting them inside of the prior stars. Once complete, I decided I needed one more detail in my pattern so I grabbed some Jet Black ink and I stenciled a circle in the center of each star pattern.

Upon completion of my geometric background paper, it was time to decide on the overall card design. I decided to cut my geometric paper down to 2.75″ by 5.5″ to use as a side panel opposite my sentiment. To create a nice line between the pattern paper and the white cardstock, I used a thin strip of black cardstock, which also helped the green to just pop.

Finally for the sentiment, I knew I wanted something larger and graphic, using a simple font style. I grabbed my Foxtrot Alphabet die set from Alex Syberia Designs and cut out a simple “HI” from black cardstock. I cut 3 sets of the “H” and “I” to create a little dimension on the card and then I finished everything off with a “Hope all is well” sub-sentiment from my Dear Dahlias stamp set.

This card is vastly different than the style of cards I usually make, clean, simple, and graphic, and I am so proud of my results. It’s always fun to stretch creatively.

Thank you!